Critical challenges confronting certification of evaluators

There are many clear-cut reasons why it would be desirable to have a certif ication process for evaluators, both to help improve the practice of evalua tion and to further the field's maturation into a full-fledged profession. But there are also many strong arguments against attempting to launch an ev aluator certification system, at least at this time, The arguments for and against AEA attempting to set up an evaluator certification system are disc ussed, including two contextual changes that have led to a significant shif t in my thinking on this topic over the last three decades. Also presented are four major challenges that would need to be overcome in any effort to d evelop a viable evaluator certification system. In light of these challenge s, I argue that the development and implementation of a certification proce ss can succeed only if pursued patiently and incrementally, with adequate t ime for AEA to test the feasibility of each of the definitional and procedu ral processes that would need to undergird such a system. Finally, an agend a of steps is suggested that AEA might take to determine if our field and o ur collective wisdom have matured sufficiently for us to succeed in such an important undertaking.